The Identification and Management of Offenders with Mental Illnesses in Victoria

This thesis reports a comprehensive study of mental illness among Victorian male offenders. The study commenced by evaluating lifetime diagnostic stability of specific ICD-10 psychiatric diagnoses among offenders. Subsequently, public mental health service utilisation patterns between offenders and non-offenders were evaluated. Next, mental health screening outcomes for prisoners made at the time of reception into Her Majesty’s Melbourne Assessment Prison (MAP) were investigated. Lastly, the study investigated whether early-start offenders (i.e., adult offenders who had a youth detention sentence) have poorer mental health outcomes when compared to adult-onset offenders (adult offenders incarcerated for the first time as an adult).